Packages of Hope for the Homeless

Last night 35 people came together to co-create packages of hope for the homeless. Including warm clothes, food, a list of local services they can get help and support from and a hand written letter of hope. We were delighted to be joined by 3 children and our hearts were warmed by the stories of connection and moments of transformation expressed by everybody involved.

One lady was moved to tears from her experiences giving her packages of hope. ‘I was a little nervous at first and then I realised this person is no different from me. They treated me with so much kindness and I felt we really connected on a human to human level’. ‘The homeless were grateful to feel that somebody in this world cared, one man expressed how he found a suit in a charity shop and now people were treating him with so much more respect as result’

The homeless people shared stories of their faith and the biggest running theme was that, they were NOT going to give up hope! ‘We have to keep going, things have to get better!’

The community came together at the end of the night and shared the following reflections …

🙏 The more we can bridge the gap between ‘us and them’ we realise we are all just human and we must do our best to support one another as humans.

❤ Although it might feel really scary to push ourselves out of our comfort zone and approach homeless people, you soon realise that’s just our fear of rejection coming into play and actually once you push through that and realise it’s just about being kind with no expectation, that really helps you to be able to give and connect from the heart with no agenda.

💕 The giver and receiver dynamic quickly becomes one, as everybody involved feels moments of connection and we never know what those seeds of love, connection and hope can lead too.

🙏 It can be hard knowing what to do which such a systemic problem as homelessness, so often we turn a blind eye, not because we don’t care, more because we just don’t know what to do.

💜 We have put a few suggestions and we welcome all your suggestions too of how we can help and support as best we can.

❤ The feedback we’ve had from the homeless is how much they appreciate people stopping, asking them their name, shaking their hand, showing an interest in them as a person- as this helps them to feel human again.

With this Brighter Tomorrow Map you can type in the location of the person and find out their local support services for them E.g Advice, shelter, free hot meal or drink: brightertomorrowmap.com. Asking them if they’d like you to register them with Street Link or not. Street link is a not for profit organisation that register the homeless with the local authorities and have an outreach team who will check on them and try and get them the support they need:www.streetlink.org.uk

Last week was a labour of love of many heads, hearts and hands. Deep gratitude to everybody involved! :-D x